Electronic messaging systems

Abstract

A computer system for facilitating communications between users is configured for: (A) receiving, from a first user, one or more user watch area attributes; (B) using the one or more user watch area attributes to define a watch area; (C) receiving, from a second user, a message associated with a geographical location; (D) determining whether the geographical location is located within the user watch area; (E) at least partially in response to determining that the geographical location is located within the user watch area, subscribing the first user to a thread of messages that includes the message; and (F) dynamically adjusting a shape of the user watch area based, at least in part, on a factor selected from a group consisting of: (1) a number of message postings within the user watch area; and (2) a population density of an area that is within the user watch area.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A computer-implemented data processing method for automatically analyzing computer code to determine whether computer software associated with the computer code collects personal data, the method comprising:
 receiving, at one or more computer processors from a first user, one or more user watch area attributes; 
 defining, by one or more computer processors, a user watch area based at least in part on the one or more user watch area attributes; 
 receiving, at one or more computer processors from a second user, a message associated with a particular geographical location; 
 determining, by one or more computer processors, that the particular geographical location is associated with the user watch area; 
 at least partially in response to determining that the particular geographical location is associated with the user watch area, subscribing, by one or more computer processors, the first user to a thread of messages that includes the message; and 
 dynamically adjusting a shape of the user watch area based, at least in part, on an attribute of message postings associated with the user watch area, wherein the attribute of the message postings comprises a number of message postings associated with the user watch area, by:
 determining that the number of message postings associated with the user watch area is below a predefined threshold; and 
 dynamically adjusting the shape of the user watch area further based, at least in part, on determining that the number of message postings associated with the user watch area is below the predefined threshold. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The computer-implemented data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein the method comprises dynamically adjusting the shape of the user watch area based, at least in part, on an attribute of the geographical area associated with the user watch area; and
 wherein the attribute of the geographical area associated with the user watch area comprises a population density of the geographical area associated with the user watch area. 
 
     
     
       3. The computer-implemented data processing method of  claim 1 , further comprising relaying the message associated with a particular geographical location from a client device associated with the second user to a client device associated with the first user using near field communications. 
     
     
       4. The computer-implemented data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein the thread of messages includes a second message that was contributed to the thread of messages before the defining of the user watch area. 
     
     
       5. The computer-implemented data processing method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more user watch area attributes comprises social networking data associated with the first user; and
 wherein defining the user watch area based at least in part on the one or more user watch area attributes comprises defining the user watch area based at least in part on the social networking data associated with the first user. 
 
     
     
       6. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for:
 receiving one or more user watch area attributes from a first user; 
 defining a watch area based on the one or more user watch area attributes; 
 receiving a message from a second user; 
 associating the message with a particular geographical location; 
 determining that the particular geographical location is associated with the defined user watch area; 
 at least partially in response to determining that the particular geographical location is located within the defined user watch area, subscribing the first user to a thread of messages that includes the message; and 
 redefining a size of the defined user watch area based at least in part on a number of message postings associated with the defined user watch area. 
 
     
     
       7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further stores computer-executable instructions for:
 receiving an instruction from the second user to associate the message with the particular geographical location; and 
 associating the message with that particular geographical location based at least in part on receiving the instruction. 
 
     
     
       8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein determining that the particular geographical location is associated with the defined user watch area comprises determining that the particular geographical location is adjacent to the defined user watch area. 
     
     
       9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein determining that the particular geographical location is associated with the defined user watch area comprises determining that the particular geographical location is within the defined user watch area. 
     
     
       10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein defining the watch area based on the one or more user watch area attributes comprises defining the watch area based on the one or more user watch area attributes relative to a geographical location of a computing device associated with the first user. 
     
     
       11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further stores computer-executable instructions for:
 receiving one or more second user watch area attributes from the first user; 
 based on the one or more second user watch area attributes, unsubscribing the first user from the thread of messages that includes the message.